Summary

Of all of the decks in Modern, Skred Red might be one of the most unique ones out there. Through all of the different iterations of Modern, Skred Red is somehow still out there in the hands of the select few brave enough to stick with it. This was shown last year when it won Grand Prix Dallas-Fort Worth. As a control-prison deck, it is rather metagame and matchup-dependent, but it has the potential of winning any deck it comes up against, which is what makes it so appealing for those who play it.

The namesake card of this deck, Skred, is one of the most powerful removal spells that Modern has to offer, assuming you’re willing to jump through some hoops. It’s usually more powerful in this deck than Lightning Bolt, but the deck certainly wants a full playset of both, in order to maximize the amount of early interaction the deck has before the more powerful control and prison elements hit the board. Magma Jet and Roast round out the targeted removal spells, and Anger of the Gods is the best sweeper that this deck has access to, and has nice synergies with Eternal Scourge as well.

Speaking of Eternal Scourge, the Eldrazi is a nice inclusion into this deck. It is resilient on its own, can be recast after an Anger of the Gods, or even recast after it’s exiled from a graveyard with Relic of Progenitus, should it end up there through combat. Pia and Kiran Nalaar is a regular inclusion in both Modern and Legacy mono-red prison decks. It packs a punch at 4 mana, and can be removal itself if needed.

Koth of the Hammer and Chandra, Torch of Defiance are both excellent planeswalkers that present great value for mana, and are hard to interact with due to the makeup of the Modern format. When paired with Blood Moon, it’s usually game over for the opponent. Despite being a rather matchup-dependent card, Blood Moon is simply powerful enough that you can afford to have those slots be wasted in a few matchups. It will win you game more often than you will expect, and even if your opponent has a few basics, the simple disruption that the card provides helps you pull very far ahead.